A former cybersecurity advisor to President George W. Bush says a sophisticated computer hack could have been the cause of the automobile accident that claimed the life of journalist Michael Hastings last week in Los Angeles.

Richard Clarke, a State Department official-turned-special advisor to several United States presidents, said the early morning auto crash last Tuesday was "consistent with a car cyberattack, raising new questions about the death of the award-winning journalist.

Hastings died last week when his 2013 Mercedes C250 coupe collided with a tree in Los Angeles, California on the morning of June 18. He was reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed and failed to stop at a red light moments before the single-car crash. He was only 33.

Speaking to Huffington Post this week, Clarke said that a cyberattack waged at the vehicle could have caused the fatal collision.

"What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the brakes on, to launch an air bag," Clarke told The Huffington Post. "You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it's not that hard."

"So if there were a cyberattack on the car  and I'm not saying there was," Clarke continued, "I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."

The Los Angeles Police Department said they dont expect foul play was involved in the crash, but an investigation has been opened nonetheless.

In an email reportedly sent by Hastings hours before the crash, he told colleagues that he thought he was the target of a federal investigation.

Hey [redacted}, the Feds are interviewing my close friends and associates, Hastings wrote 15 hours before the crash.

Also: Im onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit, he added. All the best, and hope to see you all soon.

The email was supplied to KTLA News in Los Angeles by Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who says he met Hastings while the journalist was embedded in Afghanistan in 2008. It was reportedly send to a handful of Hastings associates and was blind-copied to Biggs.

I just said it doesnt seem like him. I dont know, I just had this gut feeling and it just really bothered me, Biggs told KTLA.

Reporters at Buzzfeed where Hastings worked say they received an email from their colleague, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a statement two days after Hastings death to quash rumors that they had been looking into the reporter.

At no time was Michael Hastings under investigation by the FBI, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

According to the Associated Press, however, Hastings fingerprints were on file with the FBI and were used by the bureau to identify his body after flames consumed much the auto wreckage last week.

"I believe the FBI when they say they weren't investigating him," Clarke told the Huffington Post. "That was very unusual, and I'm sure they checked very carefully before they said that."

"I'm not a conspiracy guy. In fact, I've spent most of my life knocking down conspiracy theories," he said. "But my rule has always been you don't knock down a conspiracy theory until you can prove it [wrong]. And in the case of Michael Hastings, what evidence is available publicly is consistent with a car cyberattack. And the problem with that is you can't prove it."

Clarke, 62, spent nearly two decades at the Pentagon before relocating to the White House where he served under President Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush. He served as special advisor to President George W. Bush on cybersecurity until leaving the administration in 2003 and is currently the chairman and CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management, LLC.

It would help if someone who knows the street there could verify or refute the presence of a hydrant there. Most of the visible damage to the vehicle is to the front. If the vehicle had hit a fire hydrant, the engine should have been shoved more underneath the vehicle, not launched down the road.

Also, a gushing water source would tend to spread the fuel more (gasoline floats), not leave it in a puddle under the vehicle.

51
posted on 06/27/2013 3:39:17 AM PDT
by Smokin' Joe
(How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)

Lemme ask y’all this, if there was a cybercarjacking scene in a Jimmy Bond double-naught spy movie and the guy’s car drives off the road into a tree and explodes, would you accept it or would you scream, “NO WAY! WHAT A CRAPPY PLOT TURN!!”

A former cybersecurity advisor to President George W. Bush says a sophisticated computer hack could have been the cause of the automobile accident that claimed the life of journalist Michael Hastings last week in Los Angeles.

Considering how many people hold that the Israelis took over control of the Boeing 767s on 911 and guided them remotely into the twin towers, there is a certain irony in the source of this contention.

66
posted on 07/01/2013 12:36:22 AM PDT
by Carry_Okie
(The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by central planning.)

A former cybersecurity advisor to President George W. Bush says a sophisticated computer hack could have been the cause of the automobile accident that claimed the life of journalist Michael Hastings last week in Los Angeles.

Considering how many people hold that the Israelis took over control of the Boeing 767s on 911 and guided them remotely into the twin towers,there is a certain irony in the source of this contention.

I'm not disputing the sound. The only time I have felt the concussion is when I have been in one of the vehicles involved. While air is a great medium for propagating a compression wave, the intensity of the wave falls of by an inverse cube of the radius from the source. Either the source is very intense (explosion, thunder after a close lightening strike) or most of the shock waves we feel are transmitted through the ground or other solid objects, not the air.

What gets me is that vehicles I have seen which collided with fixed objects, especially hard enough to stop the vehicle and permit the engine to continue to travel (shearing motor and/or transmission mounts, overcoming the confining influences of surrounding bodywork) have left the remainder of the vehicle in far worse shape. Even then, fuel tanks were very seldom compromised, and fires were rare. In vehicles touted for safety, (you can wreck it, but they would rather you survive to buy another one), this seems a very strange set of worst-case scenarios (apparent loss of throttle control, steering and/or braking, collision with odd dynamics, and explosion/fire--especially if the vehicle was a diesel, which I do not know for certain). Add in what this gentleman was occupied with, and the particular timing in regards to his professional activities, and there is ample reason to suspect foul play.

76
posted on 07/01/2013 8:30:56 AM PDT
by Smokin' Joe
(How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)

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